NASCAR CUP SERIES: BASS PRO SHOPS NIGHT RACE

September 21, 2024

Austin Cindric

Pit Lane Interview

Q. You guys really started at Atlanta strong. I felt like that helped propel you guys to this position.

AUSTIN CINDRIC: Absolutely. Getting the stage points there as well as Watkins Glen and having three solid finishes, the worst finish of 13th, that's what we needed in this round, racing within our limits, and no reason why we can't do the same thing in the next. I think that's what it's going to take to move on to the round of 8.

Just really proud of my team. Solid night from starting as far back as we did and staying in the lead lap for as long as we did. The car was really strong thanks to Menards and everyone at Team Penske, and looking forward to getting going again next week.

Q. This team has improved through the summer and into the playoffs. Do you know where that performance is coming from or is there a single thing you could identify?

AUSTIN CINDRIC: I think it's just execution. I feel like throughout the course of the summer there was a lot of times we had speed. It's just you have one big blowup or one big mistake, whether if that's on me or on pit road or on strategy, performance of the car. One or two things, that's what it takes in the Cup Series. You have one or two things go wrong, it's pretty hard to recover unless you're a dominant car.

Like I said, just proud of the effort to bring really solid race cars the first three rounds and be able to do the right things with them.